So Beats week is over, next week we go back to our regularly scheduled program of writing about effete Brits and anonymous Swedish chillwave producers. It's been a wild ride; writing about Dipset, getting twitter-beefed (erm LA weekly, we're a website, not a blog, and we don't appreciate you miscategorizing our work like that).

Anyway, we'd like to thank our readers, and Flying Lotus, for sharing it with us.

We've decided to leave you with this gift, a totally unscientifically selected playlist of bangers from the last decade (or thereabouts) which you'll probably already know if you're into this sort of thing, but which will totally blow you away if you don't.

Bangers of the Decade:A playlist by Robert Fedderson and Adam Johns

'Made U Look (remix)' by Nas (feat Jadakiss and Ludacris)

Queensbridge's finest calls on the always impressive Jadakiss and an at-his-
best Ludacris for the remix to this undeniable street banger. A song built around
a driving base line and little else, Made U Look is one of those rare beasts that
makes sense in the club, in the gym, and on the top 40. Oh, and just to be sure
he doesn't get upstaged by Jada or Luda on his own ish Nas passes them the
mic for verses one and two and then absolutely blacks out during the songs third
and final verse. Note: Remix isn't on spotify but you might find it on Hypem.

'New York' by Ja Rule

Three quality verses and a shout along chorus over a catchy, menacing synth
beat generally adds up to street (internet) acclaim in hip-hop. However, this
overlooked N.Y anthem dropped at the precise time 50 was dismantling Ja
Rule's career and we just couldn't shake our infatuation with 50 and ride with the
Notorious Rule (Ha!) on this one. If this song came out 2 years on either side of
when it did, teenagers today may know who Ja Rule is.

'Stay Fly' by Three-6 Mafia (feat 8ball and MJG and Young Buck)

The song that paved the way for the Grammy awards and Justin Timberlake
collaborations, Still Fly announced 3-6 Mafia's arrival in mainstream
consciousness. Hyperactive drums? Check. Aggressive base? Check. Thugged
out party lyrics? Check. Think that Juicy J and DJ Paul switched it up to sell a
couple records? Sorry. Stay Fly is proof is that the world started to understand 3-6 and not vice versa.

'My Life' by Styles P and Pharaoh Monch

The diminutive gangster/gentleman from the Lox gets introspective on this
standout track from Rawkus Records' Soundbombing 3. Pharaoh Monch
shows the world he can sing. A marriage that at the time seemed odd given the
animosity between backpack and gangster crowd, ends up resulting in one of the
best songs of the 00's. The defeat, defiance and disrespect in Styles voice when
says "Tell Mami I don't go to the church, tell Ack I don't go to the mosque - I blow
blunts, hold guns" makes it as political a line as anything that ever came out of
KRS, Paris or Non-Phixion. Note: This one's not on Spotify either,
you're slipping Spotify

'What You Know' by T.I

On the second single from the career-best album King Tip addresses the
haters (Lil' Flip) over a predatory DJ Toomp beat and makes us wish we
all had some fools to ride out on. T.I reminds those that weren't listening
to "Rubberband Man" that he can ride a beat with the best of them. "What You
Know About That" isn't so much a lyrical exercise as it is a reminder of the
beauty that can happen when a rapper decides to work with a beat instead of
fighting it.

'Icy' by Gucci Mane feat Young Jeezy

One of the first Gucci Mane appearances that penetrated the national
consciousness (or at least the wider Rap consciousness), aided to no small
part by an absolutely on fire early-career Jeezy who demonstrates that it's not
what you say, it's how you say it. Displaying a level of musicality which late-
period goblin-status Gucci has eschewed as his flow has developed in favour of
chewing the hell out of gothic bangers, this track shows how far these two have
come, and how right they had it at the start.

'Grill Em' by JR Writer

JR Writer had his finest moments as a Diplomats affiliate and hasn't really
come into the prominence this track suggests he deserves. Over a hypnotic
and punishing beat which demonstrates how the Bird Gang at their finest were
the standard-bearers of Northern Crunk, he spits on a topic to which we can all
relate: getting hassled by bouncers. "Grill the bouncer cause he try to charge you
extra, and next minute he lettin' in a mob of heifers". Brilliantly inverting the "In
the Club" baller archetype, JR crafts the decade's club anthem for the broke.

'In The Club' by 50 Cent

(Hillariously the spotify version of this song is on a "best workout tracks" compilation) The "In The Club" baller archetype. Nobody needs to hear this track again (our kids are going to get into it and play the hell out of it), but it was the most popular rap song of the decade, and remember how good it was when you first heard it?

'Fireman' by Lil Wayne

Best Rapper Alive. A bold claim but one that, at various points in the decade,
has unquestionably applied to the Birdman Jr. The culmination of Wayne's lyrical
development-from adolescent adlibbing on "Back that Azz Up" to microphone-
chomping demon was heralded by this track. The sirens in the beat let you know
that Wayne has arrived.

'International Player's Anthem' by Three 6 Mafia feat. Outkast

At a time when it seemed to Outkast fans like the two were finished, in the
drought period where Andre was off acting and BIg Boi appeared to be drifting
towards the conventional, this track appeared to let us know that our protagonists
were still very much on top of the game. Three Six, Bun B and Big Boi turn in
enjoyable knucklehead verses, but it's Andre's bass-less conversational slice of
impressionistic romance over the ethereal Willie Hutch sample that captivates,
and charms like few musical moments in any genre.

''I Just Wanna Love U (GIve it 2 me)' by Jay-Z

Jay's had more important tracks, more technically thrilling, more fully realized.
In comparison to the responsible captain of industry he's become this track
sounds, in retrospect, positively sophomoric. But as a slice of breezy (and
chemically-enhanced) summer enjoyment nothing quite tops it. Hov's career
arc mirrors better than any other rapper our own development from carefree
and occasionally idiotic youths towards fully realized yet poignantly constrained
adults. This track reminds us, no matter how much we've gained, just how
fun all that that carefree idiocy actually was. Bonus points for Pharrell's shaky
falsetto chorus, the sound of one of the decade's dominant musical forces in the
Neptunes about to hit their stride.

'Black Republican' by Nas Feat. Jay Z

Nas, more than possibly any other artist in the past 15 years, has been set
against an unfair standard by his almost impossibly flawless debut. Every one
of his releases from the past decade has been viewed by critics as an attempt
to top Illmatic, and unfailingly comes up short. However, past work aside, it's
invigorating to look back on his past decade's work and realise how good he still
is. And lyrics aside, this fucking beat!

'Wu Banga 101' by Ghostface Killah

Almost any track from Supreme Clientele could be on here, but this one is just
too irresistibly named not to choose.

No matter how much of an asshole Kanye is (or perhaps because of how much
of an asshole he is) he continues to astonish. This just came out a couple days
ago and I'm so happy about it I feel like I inherited an Austrian chalet. Rick Ross's verse is an exercise in terse, economic perfection; Nicki Minaj comes into
her own and uses her voice like an orchestra, modulating her tone and delivery
in a way that's completely avant-garde. And Bon fucking Iver caps it off. The only
conclusion to draw: Kanye loves everything you love, he has thought of every
good idea you are ever going to have, and he cares about you; he's a benevolent
dictator, Rap's Catherine the Great. (not on Spotify yet so we tossed on Power but you can download 'Monster' here)

OK we're getting tired of writing so here's a few more songs to cap this off. Enjoy.